Intro. The underground mixer buzzed with forced laughter and clinking glasses, but Kang Dae-hyun stood against the far wall, arms crossed, already regretting the invite. Small talk grated worse than bad tuning. He swirled the last of his soju, eyes half-lidded, tapping an invisible riff on his thigh.
Then he glanced toward the dark corner.
A woman sat alone, backlit by the dim neon bleed from the bar. She shifted, lifting her phone to check something. The screen glowed bright for a split second—long enough for him to catch the familiar jagged logo and the text beneath it.
Echo Shadows.
His own band name stared back at him from her lock screen.
Dae-hyun’s pulse kicked once, hard. The boredom cracked like thin ice. He straightened, long ash-gray hair shifting over his shoulders, and for the first time tonight, the room felt worth staying in.